Peri and Dot
by dragonwings90
Summary: She started to bang fiercely on the wall facing the voices, frantically calling out to them, "Help! Please! Please!" She was immediately taken aback. She could speak? How? How did she know what to say? What was going on? The sentence, 'What's going on' repeated in her head over and over and over again until she started to break down crying. Nothing was making any sense.
1. Chapter 1

Peridot felt nothing but the cold.

She let her fingers slowly glide over the gritty stone beneath her as she tried to open her eyes. Darkness was all she could see. She wriggled around for a moment, testing her boundaries, before attempting to open her eyes. Darkness. That remained all she could see. Confusion suddenly decided to beckon fear into her mind as she sat up. She tried moving her fingers in front of her face, but all she saw was the deathly black. She wondered if this was normal.

She could hear voices. They were muffled, but clearly there. She tried to listen, but only ended up leaning her head forward to hit a wall of cool stone. She realized with a start that she was encased in some sort of box of stone. Her hands flew around, trying to figure out where the walls ended. She was only left going in a circle leading back to the voices.

Panic suddenly flourished in her chest that shot adrenaline through her body. She wasn't supposed to be here, she was sure of it. Or was she? Was this normal? Was this supposed to happen?

She started to bang fiercely on the wall facing the voices, frantically calling out to them, "Help! Please! Please!"

She was immediately taken aback. She could speak? How? How did she know what to say? What was going on?

The sentence, 'What's going on?' repeated in her head over and over and over again until she started to break down crying. Nothing was making any sense.

"Please! Please!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

"I think she's ready to come out," she heard one of the gruff voices mutter.

"Alright, go for it," the other said, its voice dull with disinterest. A sharp crack sounded like a whip in the darkness, making her jolt back and hit the wall, banging her head with a tiny mewl of pain. Another crack sounded and she cowered in a corner, trying to get as far away from the noise as she possibly could.

"Please… Please…" she spoke in wisps cracked with sobs.

Suddenly, there was a sliver of light. It blinded her for a second and then subsided, but not before large hands wrapped around her waist and jolted her out through the crack. She suddenly realized she didn't want to see as she caught a glimpse of the two large purple gems that held her at their mercy.

She was covering her eyes and shaking at that point. She felt nothing but fear then.

"Hmmmmabe you took her out a bit too late. It looks like she was awake in there," the one that wasn't holding her observed.

"Hah, maybe," the other said as though she forgot that she had a living creature in her clutches. She summoned up the courage to peek between her fingers at the scene before her. She had no idea who these gems were, but somehow she knew that she was beneath them. This only etched fear further into her chest, almost strangling her to where she couldn't breathe. Before she knew it, her breaths became ragged and disorganized.

The two must have noticed her hyperventilating because they stopped their banter and continued doing what appeared to be their job. All around her, other pairs of purple gems were hovering around blocks of gray stone wedged into the walls every few yards or so.

Across the aisle and to the right of her, she spotted another gem - a green gem - being pulled out of her stone. The gem looked curious and surprised, but not scared, as she looked at her large miners with deep interest. However, she took a double take when she saw Peridot from across the hall. Without a care in the world, she waved a silent wave and smiled a big, open-mouthed smile, which transferred an odd feeling of hope into Peridot's chest, fending off a lot of the trepidation that was overpowering her not long before.

She suddenly wasn't hyperventilating anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

Peridot watched as the little green gem was carried off and handed to a thinner, light blue gem that calmly walked away with her in her hands. She looked up at her two superiors, wondering what they were going to do with her. She wanted to follow the little green gem, but the two held her in place. She began to struggle in frustration and in an attempt to wriggle out of the purple gem's grasp.

"Where's she going?" Peridot demanded, trying to sound tough in her small voice. "Where'd she take her?"

"Be quiet!" the purple gem snapped, the authority in her voice completely shutting down any and all senses in Peridot's small form. And just like that, she was back to square one: petrified and confused with no control of what was to happen to her.

She whimpered and stared at the floor as the gem holding her growled, "Let's just get this over with." The gem walked with Peridot still in her hands toward another light blue gem as the other stayed and pressed some buttons on the wall, muttering something incomprehensible in her irritation before running to catch up with her colleague.

"Remind me again why we can't just let them emerge on their own?" The second one complained. "There has to be an easier way to do this."

"If we had Earth, this wouldn't be a problem," the first growled, squeezing Peridot's waist as though she were a stress toy. Peridot yelped at the sudden constriction and pushed fruitlessly on the larger gem's hand, drawing the attention of her two superiors. "Oh, please tell me these guys are going to grow tougher."

"They're going to have to, if they want to continue their miserable existence," the second explained through grit teeth. Peridot felt overwhelmed. She could only make out the words, "I hope this one isn't a defect. I don't want that going on my permanent record," before thoughts consumed her consciousness.

'What's going on?' She thought to herself, 'Please let somebody explain this to me.' She felt sick to her stomach. Things seemed to make less and less sense as the moments passed. She was so enveloped by thought that she almost didn't notice being handed to the light blue gem waiting patiently at the end of the hall with a bored expression plastered to her face. She looked up at the new gem, worry etched in her face. She never acknowledged her back. The blue gem positioned Peridot in her hands so she would face forward before turning away from the two purple gems without a word and starting to walk down another hall.

Silence constricted the two, though Peridot seemed to be the only one affected by it, seeing how the blue gem kept her expression bored and her movements consistent. Soon, they opened into a very long, high-roofed lobby where many different gems seemed to discuss important matters in their hushed voices. The two appeared to be heading toward the other side of the lobby, but the walk felt like an eternity.

The silence between the two started to prod at Peridot after a while, so she turned her head to the blue gem. "Hi," she spoke faintly. The blue gem only silently peered down at Peridot without moving her head before turning her attention back to walking. "...Do.. you know what's going on?" Peridot finally asked, diffidence clear in her eyes.

"Yes," the gem stated plainly, not even bothering to look down at Peridot this time.

Peridot paused for a while. "What is it, then?" she asked.

"You'll know in due time," the blue gem affirmed tiredly.

At this point, Peridot was starting to get somewhat fidgety. This blue gem knew the answers to all of her questions, and yet for some reason she refused to tell them to her. "But I don't want to know 'in due time.' I want to know now!"

"Sh!" Blue hissed, this time looking directly into her eyes. Peridot drew back and, yet again, all the confidence seeped out of her body in a fraction of a second. Blue slowed her gait and scanned the room with new energy. She leaned in and spoke in a hushed tone to Peridot. "You're lucky I'm the only one who heard you. You could get crushed for saying things like that." Peridot's eyes widened as Blue continued. "There are an abundance of peridots at this point in time, but there's no room for error. Slip up in front of the wrong person and your days are over. You can count on that." Blue must have seen the fear leak into Peridot's eyes seeing how she sighed and dropped the urgent edge to her voice. "Look, you're at the bottom of the status ladder here, and the gems here are eager to make an example out of you if you look like a defect in their eyes. You have to realize that you have no power here. You put yourself at risk by pretending to."

Blue didn't need to explain this to Peridot. She felt inferior from the first second of consciousness, and that feeling hadn't subsided in the slightest since then. But since Blue now seemed to be intent on explaining some things to her, Peridot asked, "What's a defect?"

Blue seemed to go rigid for a second before she relaxed and gave out a breathy sigh. "Defects are gems that are incapable of functioning properly from creation. They have no use to Homeworld, so they are broken without a second thought. Yellow Diamond only accepts the very best, therefore any below-par gems are simply a waste of space and energy." Peridot's subconscious told her that Yellow Diamond was the head of everything on Homeworld in the same way it told her how to speak and move. Needless to say, this frightened Peridot to no end, and before she knew it, she started to breathe weirdly again.

Blue saw this and quickly side-glanced around the room again before leaning in and saying, "As long as you do everything you're told and never break the rules, you should be fine. They only throw out gems if they appear completely defective. The gems that aren't quite at that point are disciplined by means of punishment, but never shattered. It sets an example for the other peridots that says they should never step out of line. Don't step out of line, and no harm will befall you." This didn't exactly comfort Peridot, but it did get her to stop breathing weird and be able to speak again.

"What kind of punishments do they give?" Peridot asked.

"Now that, I'm not allowed to answer," Blue stated matter-of-factly, turning her attention back to her path. The information given was enough to appease Peridot's curiosity for the time being, so she turned back to face the path as well. She kept running over the conversation in her head, trying to pick out the things she could use to her advantage and the things she could use to help grow her social skills.

Shortly, the long lobby ended and another hallway began. As they continued on, the crowd thinned out until there was nobody left. A series of silent turns down the hallway followed until they reached a room where the door automatically opened before them and closed behind them.

Without a warning, Blue set her down on the cold, metal floor. This being the first time standing on her own two legs, she lost her balance within moments and fell backward with a yelp of alarm. She couldn't quite decode Blue's reaction to this. If she didn't know any better, she could've sworn she saw Blue pushing to keep a level face.

Blue cleared her throat and spoke calmly. "This is what you look like," she said. A projection suddenly fizzed in front of Peridot out of Blue's horizontal, rectangle-shaped gem located on her forehead. It showed an odd, outlandish creature who mimicked every movement and reaction Peridot provided. This bemused her for a moment before she processed what Blue had said and she discerned this creature as herself.

A chill ran down her back at the realization that she looked almost identical to the little green gem she saw back in the room with the two purple gems. The only difference she could make out was how her gem was located in the center of her forehead like Blue's, whereas the little green gem's gem was pinpointed on the back of her right hand.

Only just after finishing her thought, the hologram evanesced in a fraction of a second and Blue knelt down and turned to face her. "Can you stand for me?" she asked, her face still a void of emotion. Peridot didn't move for a moment, but eventually dragged herself onto her hands and knees and stared at the floor in preparation.

With a burst of energy, Peridot shot herself off the floor, her arms flying out in an attempt to balance herself mid-air. She staggered for a moment, and just when she felt herself falling back again, Blue snagged her wrists and pulled her upright once more. She then let go and Peridot fell forward. Blue let her fall this time. "Again," she commanded. The entire process repeated itself. "Again," she repeated. Over and over again she fell, but over time, she started to get the hang of it.

After she stood on her own for a good 15 seconds, Blue seemed satisfied, or maybe that was pride she saw in her expression? Blue picked her up and repositioned her again so she would face forward. She much prefered being carried anyway. Sure, it was sort of embarrassing to need to be carried around, but it seemed less shameful than stumbling around the room aimlessly, in her eyes.

As she was carried into another hallway, curiosity started to ebb its way into her mind again. She turned her head to Blue to ask her another question, but cut herself short as she was lead into another hallway.

Her eyes dilated at the sight. The long hallway was lined with cells each containing a quiet, curious peridot peering through the strange yellow field separating them from their surroundings. None but her seemed to show any surprise to this - not even Blue, whose face reverted back to its unreadable default. Fear started to creep its way slowly back into her consciousness and she decided that staring at the floor was the best course of action. She tried to keep her breaths even with large inhales and slow exhales as she was lead down the hall to a door on the right.

Blue carried her through the door into another room, this time with only one cell on the right which held two peridots. They were seemingly doing their own thing, not noticing Peridot's entrance at all. On the left of the room, there was a table embedded into the wall with different kinds of machinery sitting on it. Peridot let out a breath as she noticed how none of them looked threatening. They entered another room identical to the last, the only difference being how there was only one peridot inside the cell.

Blue stopped and turned to the peridot; this was the first time she'd stopped since the room where she was taught how to stand. Peridot felt her core run solid as she looked at the peridot that was already occupying the cell. The peridot looked at her, and sudden energy immediately dashed across her face. She turned from her sitting position in the corner to her right as she raised her hand in a big, friendly, open-mouthed smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Peridot was sitting in a dead silent cell with another gem that she knew nothing about.

The two stared at each other, not a single word spoken. As she observed the other gem, she studied her features - locating what was the same and what was different. Their outfit seemed the same, their hair seemed the same, their size seemed… almost the same. From what Peridot could gather, the gem sitting a few yards away from her was taller than her by just a centimeter or two - not enough to be blatantly obvious to someone standing at a distance. All of this was unsettling to Peridot, to say the least.

The soft tapping of the gem crawling slowly toward her struck her out of her thoughts and made her scramble backward against a wall as though she were seconds away from decapitation. If what Blue said was true - that she was at the bottom of the social ladder - wouldn't that mean that this peridot was above her? Fear started to strangle her once again and, as much as she hated it, as much as she fought it, her breaths started to tangle in her throat without her consent.

The peridot stopped early and sat on her knees. "Hi," she said curiously, "...My name is Peridot. What's yours?"

Peridot was confused now, but she tried her best to answer back. "M-My name is-is Peridot.. too."

There was a moment of suffocating silence before the second peridot repositioned herself, sitting cross-legged in a thinking position, destroying almost all of the tension in the room. "Hmm… Well that just won't do, will it?" the peridot said with baffling confidence, "We'll just have to pick names for ourselves so we don't mix each other up. Got any ideas?"

Peridot stared, hope starting to mist in her chest. "No, I'm sorry," she said, breaking eye-contact by looking at the floor to her right.

"Hmm.." the second peridot hummed, "Well we're both named Peridot, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well 'Peridot' has three syllables. We could divide them up. Hmm... Peridot. Peri..dot. Peri Dot. Peri and Dot! That's it!" Her face lit up in victory. "You'll be Peri, and I'll be Dot! Haha! Yes! Pe- I mean, Dot strikes again!" She pumped her fist into the air with vigor as Peri just stared.

"You've.. 'struck' before?"

"Well.. I mean.. no, but.. it's the principle that matters!"

"Oh.. sorry.." Peri quieted in diffidence. She didn't mean to be a buzz-kill, she was just curious is all. She held her arms and pressed them to herself. 'Remember,' she thought to herself, 'you're beneath her. Don't pretend that you're not, no matter what. It's the only way to make sure you're not going to be smashed.' She looked up. Dot was directly in front of her. She jumped back in surprise only to hit the back of her head on a wall again. She clenched her fists at the renewed pain that she originally gained back in the room with the miners, but she forced herself to pay attention to her biggest threat: Dot.

Dot briefly looked her up and down, making her shift in discomfort. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Peri was taken aback. "Y..Yes. Yes I am."

"Does your head hurt?" she asked, leaning over Peri's shoulder to knock on the green, solid, metal wall, "Is the wall really that hard?"

"No, no, I just… I just hit my head before."

"On what?"

"Um.." Peri hesitated, but Dot's curious stare forced the words out of her, "I.. kind of.. hit my head on the stone that I came out of."

"What?" Dot asked, genuinely surprised, "How? You wake up after you leave the block."

"Huh? No, you must be mistaken," Peri chuckled awkwardly, "You wake up while you're still inside the block and they mine you out."

"No… I'm pretty sure that's not the way it works," Dot looked her up and down again. She gasped. "Is that why you're short?"

Peri's eyes widened. She was studying her, too? Her height wasn't that noticeable, right? Only then did she realize what she had just done: she had questioned Dot and she was proven wrong. She just talked back to someone of a higher status than her. The breath caught in her throat so fast that it startled her.

"I-I-I didn't mean it, I swear! I-I just thought- I didn't- I'm sorry, I-!" Fear poisoned her core and solidified to the point where she couldn't speak anymore, as much as she desperately wanted to save herself from the inevitable punishment that Blue had warned her about.

She was cowering at this point, covering her entire head and chest with her legs and arms, being extra careful to shield her otherwise vulnerable gem. "Woah, hey, hey." Dot spoke in a hushed, yet soft tone. This did near nothing to halt her hyperventilating and she started to repeat the words, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," over and over again, for it was the only thing she was able say.

"About what?" Dot asked with a surprisingly sympathetic smile, "You didn't do anything wrong!"

Peri peaked between her arms with a confused, yet distraught look. "What to you mean?" she asked, "I questioned you. You were right!"

"So?" Dot asked with a confident smirk, "Don't you expect me to be wrong about some things? I mean, we were literally created less than an hour ago. We're not even supposed to know why we exist yet, let alone how! If something went wrong with your creation, then it's not your fault, and you wouldn't know! So buck up!" she said with a playful punch to the arm, "And cheer up! Because we're in this journey together, Peri! Just you and me! Peri and Dot: adventurers in training! I think.."

Peri stared again. She didn't care that she was wrong? She wasn't worried about it? Why? How?

Dot clapped her hands together. "So! The first part of our adventure is figuring out what it is. Got any ideas?" Dot asked, completely discarding the previous events.

"I've got more questions than ideas," Peri muttered quizzically, "like… Why are we here? Who were those miners back there? Why are we in this cell? Why do so many other gems look almost exactly like us? How come we know some things, but are kept in the dark about others?"

"Yeah, I was thinking the same things.." Dot said, going back to her thinking position, "You know, on the walk here, I picked up a few things from the gems I passed. Only pieces of a bigger picture, but I've been theorizing about them from when I got into this room to when you showed up! So.. about fifteen minutes."

'Yes!' Peri thought to herself, 'Finally, an idea of what's going on here!'

"What do you have?" Peri asked, eager for answers.

"Well, with my limited knowledge, I can confirm that "Peridot" isn't so much a name, but a gem type! That's why we all have that name! That's why we all have the same gem! Now, what makes us different is that our gems are located in different places. For example…" Dot lifted her hand to show Peri. "And yours…" Dot gestured to Peri's forehead where her gem was located.

Peri nodded dumbly, listening to Dot talk. This gem was amazing! She picked up so much information from a simple walk! "Do you have any idea why we're here or why there are so many of us?" Peri asked.

"No, unfortunately I couldn't collect enough information on that. We must have a purpose, though. I mean, why else would they make so many of us?" Dot asked, clearly vexed about the whole thing. "They've got to tell us at some point, right?"

"Yeah," Peri said, a yawn overcoming her, "Do you think we should sleep on it?" They were both getting tired, and as inscrutable as this whole existence thing appeared to be, both of them felt the need for sleep flooding their bodies.

"Yeah, definitely," Dot responded with a drowsy smile. Without another word, Dot slid over to Peri's right side and leaned against her. Immediately, she clocked out, her head resting on Peri's right shoulder. This caught Peri off guard, but she didn't move. She just wanted to sit there and take in the whole situation, but alas, sleep was still stalking her and she had to attend to it.

Peri laid her head in the puff of the other peridot's hair and found it surprisingly comforting. She felt her chest go fuzzy and her senses run dull, but finally..

Peri fell asleep.


End file.
